Chelidonura punctata (Eliot, 1903) - Aglajidae

Chelidonura punctata

(Eliot, 1903)

Photographed by: Anthony Holley

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Subclass:	Opisthobranchia
Order:	Cephalaspidea
Family:	Aglajidae
Species:	Chelidonura punctata

Comment from Nathalie Yonow on photo #32154

Purple must be a photographic artifact!

Comment from Nathalie Yonow on photo #20666

Perfect!

Comment from Nathalie Yonow on photo #20810

This is punctata, jet black with large coral orange spots, and white edging.

Comment from Nathalie Yonow on photo #14082

Yes, wonderful to see it turning up. Large orange spots are characteristic.

Comment from Nathalie Yonow on photo #14081

Lovely. I wonder if the blue tinge is a photographic artefact??

Comment from Richard Willan on photo #5248

Note the absence of any white marking across the front of the head (either a bar or a w-shaped pattern). This is an important new locality record, because previously this species was only known from the Indian Ocean.

Comment from Richard Willan on photo #3043

This tailed bubble snail is characterised by the presence of orange spots on both the dorsal and ventral surfaces and the fine white edge on the parapodia that becomes grey anteriorly. An interesting short paper was just published on C. punctata documenting its diet of acoel flatworms on a brain coral.

Reference: Mangubhai, S. 2007. Chelidonura punctata (Eliot, 1903) preys on acoel flatworms recruiting onto Playtgyra daedala (Ellis and Solander, 1786) in Kenya. Coral Reefs 26: 1057.